Picture a Refugee Camp

A disaster
has occurred.

40,000 people are left homeless.
7,000 are children. There are 2-4 deaths per week. The camp is overwhelmed,
there is no room left. Some people stay with friends or family. Another 1,000
people are forced to sleep outside in the elements year round. Some of them
build shanty towns, squats or tent cities to survive. Some use cardboard boxes
and other materials for shelter. Some live under bridges or in abandoned
buildings. Some sleep on subway grates and get second degree burns from the
steam.

For those lucky enough to be
inside the camp, the conditions are substandard. In some parts of the camp,
there are only 3 or 4 toilets for 100 people and not everyone has access to a
shower. Common areas are filled with mats for sleeping and there are not enough
blankets. In many cases the conditions people are forced to live in do not meet
the United Nations Standards for Refugee Camps. Violence is rampant, staffing
inadequate. There is inadequate cooking facilities and poor air flow. The
tuberculosis infection rate is 4 times higher than the population not affected
by the disaster

A TB outbreak occurs in the camp –
15 men are infected with the same strain. Three of the men die. Other infections
– diarrhea, colds and flus are the norm. Bedbugs have infested the entire camp.
An aboriginal man is found dead in his sleeping bag one morning. Another man is
murdered in the camp. Another commits suicide. 200 babies are born. Others
remain in the camp so long that a palliative care unit has been set up!

You’ve probably figured out that I
am referring to the overall situation in Toronto for displaced persons,
de-housed people, commonly known as the “homeless”. This is the picture today
and it worsens daily. Tonight, there are between 60 and 80 people sleeping
outside Toronto City Hall. Just last week, it was announced that 6 workers at
one shelter were infected with tuberculosis. Two have active TB – the same
strain as the camp outbreak.

But this disaster also exists on a
different scale in most Canadian communities. In Calgary, again only last week,
a mysterious outbreak spread through a homeless centre. We now know it was a
Norovirus outbreak. I know that before I leave Edmonton I will be able to
describe quite graphic conditions that I will have either seen for myself or
learned about from you. There are men who live night after night in emergency
shelters and go to work every day, there are many families homeless, and a high
number of First Nations people homeless.

You may wonder, “How can this happen in
Canada, with its winter climate and what we were led to believe was a social
safety net?”

Well, as
you know, it wasn’t always like this – there was a time when people could find
housing, shelter and the support they needed. All that changed dramatically in
the mid 1990s when senior levels of government cut transfer payments, cut social
assistance rates, cancelled affordable housing programs and changed tenant
protection laws, etc. etc.

Now, I
promise I will be more inspiring but I first want to walk you through what we
once had and how this mess happened.

·About two-thirds of Canadians don’t have a particularly serious
housing problem. They have enough money that they are able to afford to buy
their home, or to rent a decent place and still have enough money left over for
food and other necessities. It’s the poorest one-in-three Canadian households
that are trapped in the affordable housing crisis and homelessness disaster.
Private developers and private landlords aren’t able to provide market-based
housing for them. Right after the Second World War, governments at the federal,
provincial and municipal levels recognized that they had to step in to provide
help.

·In 1973, which was the start of what many housing advocates now
call the “golden age of housing in Canada”, the
federal government introduced amendments to the National Housing Act with these
thrilling words: “Good
housing at a reasonable cost is a social right of every citizen of this country.
. . This must be our objective, our obligation and our goal.” And the government
of the day backed up those brave words with real action: Over the next 20 years,
close to half a million units of good quality, affordable housing were built
throughout Canada. In fact, I live in a federally-funded housing co-op in
downtown Toronto. So, we have a proud history of successful housing programs
that provided good homes in great communities to a great many Canadians.

·But then,
governments at the federal and provincial levels caught the spending cut bug.
Starting in the 1980s, and then accelerating in the 1990s, politicians right
across the country decided that they had to make massive cuts in spending –
including housing spending. Many of those governments also made major tax cuts –
and decided to finance those tax cuts with even more spending cuts. In 1993 the
federal government cancelled its national housing programme. And in 1996, the
federal government transferred most of its existing housing programs to the
provinces and territories. This meant that our federal government, for the first
time since the end of the Second World War, was no longer helping Canadians to
find or maintain housing.

·In 1995 Ontario’s Conservative government did the same (including 17,000
units in development that would have housed 40,000 people). They also cut
welfare rates 21.6 % and made significant changes to the landlord tenant act.

·In British
Columbia, the Campbell government in 2001 cancelled about 1,000 units of
affordable social housing that were under development; in Quebec the 2002
election of the Charest government shifted money from public housing dollars to
private sector housing; and Nova Scotia made the biggest cuts in housing
spending – from 2000-2002 it cut 50% of its overall housing budget. I could go
on and on with similar examples. And Alberta
did it too – as you know better than myself.

So, to summarize, our governments
took practical and effective action roughly from 1947 to the mid-1980s, then
they suddenly and decisively cut spending, downloaded programs and left low and
moderate-income Canadians stranded. Prof. Jean Wolfe, of McGill University, one
of the leading experts on Canadian housing policy, had this to say:

“It is only in Canada that the
national government has, except for CMHC loans, withdrawn from social housing.
The rush to get out ofmanaging existing projects and building new,
low-income housing has taken advocates by surprise. It was never imagined that a
system that had taken 50 years to build-up could be dismantled so rapidly.
Social housing policy in Canada now consists of a checker-board of 12 provincial
and territorial policies, and innumerable local policies. It is truly
post-modern.”

- Prof. Jean Wolfe,
McGill University

I usually
spend a lot of time talking about what former Premier Mike Harris did in Ontario
but you can be sure we were always watching what was happening in Alberta. Your
Mr. Klein appears to have been Mr. Harris’ mentor.

In
Alberta, major cuts in provincial housing programs were made, including
canceling the seniors’ supportive housing program. Canada Mortgage and Housing
Corporation reported in 2001 that Alberta made the biggest cuts, in financial
terms, on housing programs, among all the provinces and territories since the
1990s.

Alberta’s
oil and gas revenues have created a financial windfall for the province. Your
government has been able to retire the provincial debt and cut taxes. Yet,
housing figures show that Alberta has neglected housing spending – creating a
huge housing deficit. People in your cities and towns are feeling the brunt of
that and your farmers really have a lot to worry about for their future.

It was
very specifically these policy changes in your province, and in mine, that have
de-housed people and created an avalanche that has filled our streets, drop-in
centres and shelters with people who suddenly found themselves homeless. And
those people are still out there. And they are sick and they are dying at an
extraordinary rate.

Why should
a homeless woman have to say to me when I go to speak to politicians or other
community leaders: “go tell them Cathy, tell them that we are dying”.

The Ice Storm

Now personally, I have
to tell you that I love the cold, I love cold Canadian winters but a few years
ago, I had a nursing epiphany because of the weather. In 1998 eastern Canada
suffered a horrific ice storm that left tens of thousands of people without
hydro in a very cold winter. People were forced from their home into emergency
makeshift shelters for weeks. After a few days, as you can imagine, people were
cranky, getting sick, tired from not sleeping, desperate for their special foods
or medications. But you know, everything I witnessed on television depicting the
outcome of this natural disaster existed and continues to exist to a hellish
degree in the shelters and on the streets in my city.

Yet in 1998 enormous energies went into disaster
relief to help people made homeless from an ice storm, and so it should have.
But watching the government’s response to the ice storm challenged my conscience
deeply.

Our own research illustrated that homelessness
easily qualifies as a disaster. The indicators: a significant number of people
affected (250,000 across the country back in the 1980s), a resurgence of old
illnesses like tuberculosis, sudden clusters of deaths. The ice storm explained
to me, in a very helpful way that homelessness would never be alleviated without
a massive government response to the disaster. The kind of response we would
expect to see if a chemical spill or train derailment occurred.

So, in
1998, the year of the ice storm, a group of us formed the Toronto Disaster
Relief Committee and began a campaign declaring homelessness a man-made,
national disaster, in a country that had the legal and technical means to end
it. We demanded emergency relief monies for our cities and a long term strategy
for a national housing program where an additional 1% of government budgets
would be allocated for an affordable national housing program. This is an
ongoing campaign.

Professor
Ursula Franklin suggests that natural disasters such as the 1985 Mexico City
earthquakes that killed10, 000 people, evoke
solidarity and tolerance. Political and social divisions are put aside and
people focus on providing solutions to the injured and homeless while at the
same time addressing prevention. For example, in the Mexico case they looked at
improved use of geological knowledge and the role of the subway layout in the
amplification of shock waves.

Homelessness in our country, on the other hand, evokes blame, discrimination and
stereotypes as an excuse to not do anything. “Get a Job” was Premier Klein’s
response to the men living in a shelter, when he made his impromptu visit just
before Christmas in 2001 – right here in Edmonton.

If our
governments acknowledge homelessness, as a legitimate political earthquake, it
could result in an organized tri-level government response. It is not
unrealistic to expect that. We have witnessed other landmark Canadian versions
of the earthquake, for example floods, and chemical spills. These catastrophes
all result in a shelter and rehousing response from the government.

So, how do we move the political logjam, and make
housing happen?

This is what people really want to
know - are we getting closer to winning a comprehensive national housing and
homelessness strategy? Everywhere I go groups are lining up wanting to do
housing in their community – just waiting for the funding.

We must remember the movement
forward.

It began on October 8, 1998. On
that day, the crime was named and the truth was told.

In a downtown Toronto Anglican
church, close to 400 people squeezed into standing room only space for a press
conference. They listened and the emotion was palpable as the State of Emergency
Declaration was read out and homelessness was declared a national disaster. One
by one, they lined up to sign the declaration. They were homeless men and women,
street youth, nurses, church members, seniors, social agencies, health centres
and housing and social activists.

On that day, Ursula Franklin, in
her wisdom, reminded us “We have the legal and technical means to end this.”

Today, more and more people are
realizing that truth. Bank presidents and economists, mayors, Boards of Trade,
Rotary clubs, Anglican dioceses, national unions, teachers’ federations.

Politicians will have no choice
but to respond. And, we do see some signs of that.

Remember that shortly after the
disaster declaration, Prime Minister Chretien appointed a Minister Responsible
for Homelessness? I thought that was such a good title – a Minister Responsible
for Homelessness. That was Claudette Bradshaw. We were probably the only
country in the world with a Cabinet minister responsible for homelessness.

Remember the 1999 roll out of the
SCPI (Supporting Community Partnership Initiatives) monies? Well, I really call
that money ‘disaster relief monies’ that helped to alleviate some of the
pressure points around homelessness, it definitely saved lives, but it was not
housing money.

Remember in 2001 the federal
government signed a federal-provincial-territorial housing agreement in Quebec
City, and slowly some of the provinces signed on?

Most recently, Prime Minister
Martin appointed a full-fledged Minister of Housing. Prior to this, housing was
an add-on to other ministerial duties such as transportation, environment and
public works. The new minister is Joe Fontana.

The Prime Minister has joined the
federal government’s homelessness programs with the federal housing programs,
indicating that he is at least making the link.

In the last federal election, the
Liberals promised $1.5 billion over the next five years, on top of the $1
billion over five years they had promised earlier. We have just learned that
there will be a federal-provincial housing ministers’ meeting on November 30 in
Ottawa and national housing groups will be there – on the inside and on the
outside.

Remember the 2002 Tent City
eviction? They were the largest group of homeless people engaging in civil
disobedience since the depression and they won, big time – a historic rent
supplement program that has proven that homeless people want housing. And this
victory and its’ political significance as a poor peoples’ win will go down in
history.

So what you can do here in Alberta?

Well, you
could start by wearing the 1% button proudly. I just happen to have a few
hundred here to spread out today. But you can also order some 1% buttons from
TDRC for your agency and clients. I would love to see 1% buttons all over
Alberta

Strategically, it’s important to support specific local housing projects and
to highlight the lack of government support every step of the way to
illustrate in this action that people want to live in housing and no one
chooses to be homeless.

Join some of
your Alberta colleagues in the NHHN, the National Housing and Homeless
Network. We have frequent conference calls and share strategy and information

I know that
Mr. Klein invited himself to a men’s shelter for a tour but it’s more helpful
to make sure this happens the right way. Invite your mayor and other
politicians, policy people, members of the media to “tour your
disaster”. We have taken Buzz Hargrove, Mayor David Miller, and MPs and MPPs
of all political stripes on our tours.

Before
November 30 (that’s the date the housing ministers are all meeting) create a
delegation to meet with your MP and MPP and tell them as graphically as you
can what your situation is in your community and why you need monies for
housing. If you do one thing, this is the most important.

I usually ask
people to think about what they can do on November 22 National Housing Day,
but I think the best thing I can ask you to do is to vote and to vote for
housing.

Alberta and Ontario have a lot in
common.

ØDecent people that
can no longer keep, let alone find affordable housing;

ØFamilies in
shelters, and these are families with children;

ØPeople trying to
survive on a crummy disability allowance or welfare allowance;

ØAnd people who are
already suffering enough who also have to face the brunt of discriminatory
comments by erratic political leaders who suggest they “should just go and get a
job”, or that “they don’t look like they are disabled”, or that they are “bums”
or “lazy”.

We’ve barely survived a decade of
housing drought. Some people haven’t. It’s time now to open the taps.

We are the “have” provinces
and together we must push our provinces to be lead players in building safe and
affordable housing across the country. So I urge you to be loud and to be
persistent and to do what one of my good friends says which is to create a wind,
a wind that will build momentum, passion and excitement.

I’m so looking forward to spending
more time here, meeting with you and learning more about your issues and your
needs.